Osama Bin Ladin, who masterminded the plane attack on New York and Washington DC was being shielded by the Taliban, who governed Afghanistan under his friend, Mullah Omar.
We asked them to give him up to us so that we can being him to justice. The Taliban refused to give him up. We gave then MONTHS to respond, they still refused.
What were we supposed to do? Just let him go?
Now, we took out the Taliban and installed a government. Should we get the heck out of there now?
What has it cost us in terms of irreplaceable lives and treasure?
Any war we do not fight WWII style (TOTAL NO-HOLDS-BARRED ABSOLUTE COMMITMENT TILL UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER) is “unwinnable” which is why all of them since WWII have never really been “won”.
Also, America should never enter a war it will not make a WWII style commitment to.
Had we committed to defeating the Taliban on the level we committed to defeating Germany and Japan our military would have had to take the war massively to the territory of Pakistan as well - which has been nothing less than a safe haven for the Taliban (not to forget they also gave final refuge to Bin Laden. Could any U.S. president have obtained that level of commitment against the Taliban? Very doubtful. So that war was never “winnable” from the start.
Dubya (Bush) initially went into Afghanistan to get UBL (Osama). Dubya had a chance to get him as intelligence had pinpointed UBL’s location in the Afgan mountains. The military was poised an ready to take him out. Bush demurred and UBL got away. The rest of Dubya’s sad administration was downhill from there.
Somewhere there is a Democrat making money off us being there.
And then similar in Iraq.
You never win hearts and minds. Never.
Hotwire is not “US!”
We should have sent 150.000 soldiers to Afghanistan and shut it down for business.
Instead bush, who was in bed so much with the sauds I’m surprised he didn’t get pregnant by them, sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to take out a tin pot joke of a dictator.
Not having enough troops to secure borders and letting Iran get away with the incursions was a disgrace.
Billions and billions and billions in graft, and really nothing to show for the war except 10s of thousands of brain injured soldiers.
And Iran finally finding a way to get into Iraq for good.
We went in to get Bin Laden. He has been dead for a while; killed next door in Pakistan. Bid Laden doesn’t explain why we are still there. We are now have fighting men on both sides who were not born when this war started. What force keeps this thing going? Whatever or whoever it is, it needs to be removed from its position of influence.
Any half-way intelligent person wasn’t “lied to.” The mountains and muslim troglodytes of Afghanistan defeated the British and the Russians. Did anyone seriously believe that Afghanistan, of all places, would be where US Fed.gov imposed democracy would be successful?
Yes, the hunt for Bin-Laden was justified, but beyond that, the rational response to “Islamic terror” would have simply been a complete and total travel ban on anyone from any Mideast, North African, or South Asian Muslim nation.
Bin Laden is dead.
We make it clear to whoever is in charge that if we detect even a whiff of a terrorist training camp in the country that we will immediately respond with appropriate force (from the sky).
I understand that the military industrial complex has its interest in maintaining the unending wars, and I understand that the creed of the American Interventionist is to continually claim that we can win "this one" (we just need an infinite amount of time, money, and American blood), but I do think that after more than eighteen years without a clear victory, it's time to go.
Our government will never stop this sh!t as long as there are Americans who are naive enough or dumb enough to fight these stupid wars. There’s really nothing else to say about it.
Our original rationale for staying after the American army slaughtered thousands of Taliban and overthrew the Taliban government was supposedly because our “intelligence” services said Bin Laden was still somewhere in in Afghanistan. Somehow, just somehow, our crack , politicized CIA failed to determine that Bin Laden was comfortably domiciled in Pakistan. What’s more he was living rather openly in the town that housed their military academy and where many senior retired Pakistani officers lived. Meanwhile our soldiers were getting killed, physically and psychologically maimed fighting the war near and dear to the hearts of all globalists. The whole entanglement stinks.
Oh Afghanistan has changed,, when we first got there generations of men couldn’t get their wives pregnant because they only knew one way to have sex, like their elders had been with them since they were young.... there are two or three generations who understand what’s been going on there and those will be the Afghans that rise there , I’m sure of it. It was complete enslavement , willfully overlooked generations,, it’s why the communist admire them so much ,, at least that’s one reason I’m sure , praying for Afghanistan indeed
YES! Get the eff out now.
Given that our excuse to attack the taliban is gone ( shielding Bin Laden) is dead and gone, our entire rationale for Afghanistan should be under public review.
No. We need a base operation to combat Islamic terrorism and have one in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is, was and will always be about OPIUM, NOTHING ELSE, EVER. Got It??
Actually, when Bubba had the chance to kill Osama bin Laden in the late 90’s, he shouldn’t have told Albright before the mission. Seems she spilled the beans. Had Bin Laden been killed then there would not have been a USS Cole or 9/11 attack.